


When We Came Back

by TragicLove



Series: Before We Go [2]
Category: Hanson (Band)
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:35:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22683325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TragicLove/pseuds/TragicLove
Summary: Two years later, Hannah comes back to New York City.
Relationships: Zac Hanson/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Before We Go [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1631746
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	When We Came Back

**Hannah**

I’m standing outside a bar in a city I haven’t been in in almost two years. The outside of the bar is nice looking, dark wood, pristine glass, big sign with the name spelled out in neat, golden letters. I can see through the windows that the place is nearly full to capacity, bodies everywhere, waiting for exactly the same thing I came here for. Well, almost exactly. Not quite. 

I’m having a hard time making myself go in. It’s not that I don’t want to, I do. I want to more than I’ve wanted most things in my life. It’s just that I’m _scared_. Two years is a long time and maybe nothing is the same and everything has changed. I can’t know, I can’t know anything, really. 

A bouncer slips out the door and onto a stool perched beside it. He looks up at me and then motions towards the door with his head. “If you’re looking to catch the show you should go in soon, ‘bout to have to start turning people away.”

“Big turn out, huh?” I smile lightly and look back in to the window.

“Always. These guys are bad ass, always fill the place up.”

I feel a bolt of pride run through me and I don’t know why. It has nothing to do with me. Nothing and everything all at the same time.

“Thank you,” I smile and step towards the door. He hops off his stool and pulls the door open. 

“There’s a five dollar cover,” he says not unkindly.

“Oh,” I look up at him and shake my head. “Right.” I dig in my purse that I’m determined not to ‘lose’ tonight and hand him a ten. He hands me five back and then whisks the door open and motions with his arm for me to move inside.

It takes my eyes a few seconds to adjust to the low lighting inside the bar and then I make my way over to where there is a smooth, dark wood bar top that stretches from one end of the place nearly to the entire other side. I spot an empty seat across the room, diagonal from the edge of the stage and I head towards it. I want to be able to see this, I need to, so I slide on to the empty, high-backed chair and I wait for the bartender to make his way to me. He does and I order a beer, sliding my credit card across the counter. He asks me if I want to start a tab and I nod and smile, I don’t need to drive anywhere, not for the next two days, and if I’ve ever needed liquid courage, tonight would be the time. 

I’m two beers and a lot of nervous energy in when the lights dim even further and the crowd, all together, launches into excited noise. Then the guitar hits, a few beats later, the drums, and I turn my stool so I’m facing the stage and there he is.

He looks the same, like not a single day has passed by since I walked away from him in Grand Central Station, and I instantly wonder if he’d think the same thing about me. Probably not. My hair is different, shorter, a few shades lighter than it was the last time he saw me. I wear it different and I’ve lost some weight, not enough to be truly noticeable, but I wonder if he would. He’s on my side of the stage, jeans that are just almost too tight, a well fitted black t-shirt, the same Converse sneakers he had on the last time I saw him. Well, probably not the same ones, but essentially so. 

The lead singer starts to fill the air up with words and sounds and it’s all so nice, so good. I smile and close my eyes, he did it. This is his future and his now. 

**Zac**

I sling my guitar strap over my shoulder and hand it to the tech, grabbing the one he’s holding out to me. I put it on and adjust it and then I look up and every single iota of oxygen inside of my body leaves me. 

I blink once, twice, three times, expecting her to vanish, just like she always does when I think I see her. Usually one blink will show me that the person I’m looking at only resembles her and the following ones will tell me that it was just my high hopes and imagination and whoever I’m looking at actually looking nothing like her at all. But not this time.

Her dark brown hair is a lighter shade and it’s shorter, framing her face differently, but it’s _her_ hair and her eyes and her _face_ and I shake my head slowly. A small smile grows on her face and I feel my mouth following suit and then her smile is bigger and she lets out a small laugh and covers her mouth with her hand and shakes her head and then Jay, our drummer, bangs out the start to the next song and I know I should tear my eyes away from her and concentrate, but I can’t. So I just look at her and I play.

**Hannah**

The set ends and he hands his guitar to the guy with his hands outstretched waiting for it, but it almost hits the floor because his eyes are still trained on me while he does it. He forgoes leaving the stage the normal way and just hops right off the edge, his legs bringing him over to where I’m sitting. I stand just as he reaches me and he stops, standing there for a second, his eyes roaming all over my face before he lifts one arm, chest level, and then brings his other hand up and pinches his own skin. His eyes wince a little and then he drops his arms and nods his head once.

“Okay,” he says and his voice is exactly the same as I remember. “I just had to make sure this was real.”

And then he pulls me in and hugs me and we’re both laughing just a little bit. He pulls back a little, his hands still on my hips and he’s shaking his head again like he just can’t believe that I’m standing here, in front of him, and I understand because I’m feeling that way too.

“What are you doing here?”

“Well, I came to see you,” I shrug a shoulder and smile. “Obviously.”

He moves his head around me and looks at something behind me and then looks back at me again. “Okay,” he says. “I was just making sure you had your bag.” I laugh and lightly smack his chest.

“Stop it.”

“I just don’t think I have the energy,” he shrugs and smiles. “To, you know, do all of that again.”

We’re quiet and the bartender comes over and I turn my head when he asks me if I want another. I look back at Zac and tilt my head and he nods and I answer, saying two please.

**Zac**

Not a day has gone by since we were together, not in the way that it feels, and I still feel like I know her like the back of my hand even though I don’t. 

We’re drinking and talking and laughing and every time her eyes land on mine I feel like my entire chest is going to break open and my insides are going to spill out on to the bar in front of us. I still don’t know why she’s here or how she knew to come, I have no idea about anything except the fact that Hannah is sitting next to me in this crowded bar and we’re not in crisis mode this time and it feels good. Just good.

“Your hair,” I grab a strand of her hair between my thumb and finger and run it down. “It’s different.”

“Do you like it?” She tilts her head. “I thought I needed a change.”

“I love it,” I answer and it’s not a lie. She could have shown up here with a neon green mohawk and I would love it because it would mean she was _here_ and that’s all I really can bring myself to care about right now.

“You look exactly the same,” she says, turning her body to face me. “Nothing has changed.”

“Things have changed,” I say and I feel one side of my mouth lift in a grin. “I’m not lost anymore. I still need to thank you for that.”

“Speaking of that,” she drains her beer into her mouth and then swallows, dropping the empty bottle on to the bar. “I have so much to tell you, but not here. I’m starving and I think I know somewhere we can go,” she looks up at me grinning, her arm moving behind her to grab her bag. She fishes something out and waves it front of my face. It’s a hotel room key card and I grab it, looking down at the name of the hotel on the back.

“You didn’t,” I laugh. “Same room?”

“Oh yeah,” she laughs. “I had to bribe them to move the people who were already booked in it out of it, but it only cost me double so-” she shrugs and motions for the bartender to come over. “It all worked out, really.”

**Hannah**

We’re walking and the streets are nearly empty which seems weird but fitting all at the same time. The last time that I was in this city I had nothing with me except for this man and his generosity and that has stayed with me for all of these months that I’ve been back in Boston trying to make a life that I just didn’t fit in anymore work.

It wasn’t easy, coming to the decisions that I’ve made over the past two years, but I’ve done it, and every single one of them has lead me back to here, back to this. It seems crazy and that’s probably because it is, but I know that it’s also right, I can feel it everywhere inside of me, I just need to get to the point where I can find out if he’s on the same page. 

We get to the hotel and the elevator ride up is slow and quiet and I can feel the tension between us, it’s brewing and bubbling and the air is thick with it, but I kind of like it. I like the unknown, the uncertainty of the next moments, the answers to the things I’m going to say. I’m scared to all hell and there is a part of me that wants to call this off, go back home to how it was yesterday, but that isn’t worth it and I know that. That’s not the girl that I am.

We get to the room and I open the door and take off my jacket. He does the same and we toss them on the back of the chair that’s tucked underneath the small circular table in the corner. I go to climb on to the bed to sit but he says ‘wait’ and grins at me.

He disappears into the bathroom and comes out a few minutes later wearing the fluffy white hotel robe and I laugh, shaking my head at him. 

“This is the right way to do this,” he shrugs, smiling. And he’s right.

**Zac**

I’m leaning against the headboard when she comes out, giant robe about three sizes too big for her, but she looks cute and maybe a little timid, which is not a look I’m used to seeing on her, so it throws me a little. But, not enough. I wave her over with my hand and she climbs onto the bed and sits next to me, her head falling on to my shoulder. I bring my hand up so it’s cupping her face and then run my fingers over his skin until they disappear into her hair. I hear her let out a contented sigh and I smile.

“So,” I say quietly. “Shall we order some food? We’ll have to pay for it this time,” I laugh. “But, that’s okay.”

“Later,” she says and sits back up. She turns so she’s facing me and she shakes her head a little bit and lets out a breath. “This is crazy.”

“Why?” I ask. “What’s so crazy? We’re just here, in this same hotel room we were in two years ago, I still don’t know your last name and I’ve only ever spent eight hours with you, but I’ve never been so happy to be sitting next to someone before.” I don’t mean to say all of that, but it just comes out, and the funny part of it is, every single word is true, so I just let them hang in the air around us until she speaks again.

“North,” she says, her eyes fixed on mine. “My last name is North. Last time you saw me, it was Knight, but it’s North now.”

I take this in for a few seconds and then I smile. “You’re not with him anymore.” It’s not a question.

“No,” she shakes her head, but only the tiniest bit. “I’m not.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I did what you said,” she shrugs. “I took your advice. I went home and I faced it head on and I tried, I really did, I tried,” she shrugs again, limply. “But, it was never what it was before again. It was hard and it was wrong and nothing we - I did ever made it feel right again. So, I got out of there.”

“How long?”

“Six months,” she sighs. “I wanted to call you. I looked everywhere for that stupid feedback card that you left your number on the back of. I don’t know what happened to it, it was just gone. I couldn’t find it and I looked you up, everywhere,” she raises an eyebrow at me. “Who doesn’t have a Facebook in this day and age, by the way?”

“Never saw much use for it,” I laugh. Stupid. I should have saw the use.

“Anyway,” she carried on. “I started keeping up with the band, you know, Gary. I saw that you’d gotten the job and I kept waiting, just waiting for you guys to play near me…I mean, not even just over the last six months, but practically since I got home. But, you never did. So, I guess I just decided…” She looks down and then back up at me. “I just decided to go for it when I saw you were playing here this weekend. So I-”

“Jumped,” I smile. “You jumped.”

She looks at me for a second and then she laughs, dropping her head so her hair falls over her face a little bit. It’s officially the happiest I’ve ever seen her and I’m going to commit this moment to memory. She looks back up at me and leans in so our faces are really close, our noses almost touching. “Yeah,” she says quietly. “I jumped.” And then she kisses me.

**Hannah**

Sun is streaming in to the hotel room and I rub a hand over my eyes before I open them. Zac’s there, laying on his side facing me just like he was when we drifted off to sleep last night. 

We said a lot of things before we fell asleep. Not all of them big, but some of them huge. He told me he’d looked for me too, but he never wanted to get in my way. He was hoping, on some level, that my life would have worked itself out and I’d have been happy, so he went on with his days, but we had one really big thing in common and that was that we never stopped thinking about each other.

He lives here now, in the city, and I’m going to live here too. I’m not going to leave again because I know that this is where I’m supposed to be, it sounds stupid and crazy but I believe it. Everything that happened, the affair, me getting my purse stolen, winding up in Grand Central Station that night and finding him, it was all supposed to happen and it was all supposed to lead me to here. So here is where I’m going to stay, and if it works, it works, which I know it will. But, if it doesn’t, that’s okay too. At least I’ll know. 

I’m still the girl who looked love in the eye and jumped, except this time I’m not jumping alone. We’re going to do it together, and I have a good feeling about where we’ll land.


End file.
